


Sister-who-Wasn't

by EgoDominusTuus



Series: Like Good Soldiers [17]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Curie's a helpless puppy, Failed Reinstillation, Gen, Gen 3 Synths, Memory Wipe, Protective Wolves, Psychic Wolves, Psychic Wolves For Lupercalia, Robots, Synth-wolves, Two Survivors AU, synthetics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 05:23:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5993065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EgoDominusTuus/pseuds/EgoDominusTuus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was Mercy, and she wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sister-who-Wasn't

 G5-19 and I were created in tandem - we were part of a project known as the Alpha project, though our particular role in the experimentation phase was different than other synth-wolf relationships. Along with the others of the G and Y series, we were conceived with the notion that our brains and bodies would be linked from origin. Other synthetic beings were linked with their wolves afterward, once the one they called Father realized how to force a bond between animal and man.

  From the moment I opened my eyes, I knew nothing other than G5 - she was my companion, my counterpart. We were built to work as a single unit, and so we did. Frequently, our mission assignment coincided with G7-81 and her wolf-sister Y6-87 - my own sister was programmed to be skilled with combat, but better with medicinal intervention. I was designed as her fierce protector, and her triage unit; my senses were fine tuned to realizing when a unit or human was too far on death’s door to properly recover.  

  Like all wolves in the Alpha series, I was larger than my biological counterpart - I recognized that we all had different colored pelts; I was a dark chestnut with cream colored fur, while Y6-87 was a pale cream with a dusting of black. Our similarities came in scent - _clean rooms_ \- and the golden color of our eyes. To my knowledge, there were 9 pairs of wolf and synth in the G-Y strand of the Alpha testing. G7-81 left when she realized that the man they called Father was ordering both synth and wolf to reprogramming. She sent for G5 a few weeks later… and the clean rooms and white walls that I had come to call my den were suddenly no more.

  Instead, we were settled into a place called Railroad - G7 was no longer G7, but Glory, and my sister-wolf Y6 was given the designation of Guts. To the humans around us, there seemed to be humor in the names, but I did not understand. I also didn’t understand when G5 insisted I call to her as Mercy, or when my designation number was cast aside, and instead replaced with the name Triage… but she called to me with more affection and care than we’d ever been allowed before, and so I settled into the name.

  The topside world was something altogether different than I had expected - the air had more smells than I could have fathomed, and being allowed to stay longer than the time it took to run a mission allowed me to truly explore it. I could roam and run, I could hunt freely - and the instincts of the animal that I had been created to emulate seemed to take over. I settled further into the name of Triage, and at night I laid protectively by Mercy’s side, determined that I would let nothing take my sister from this world that she seemed to thrive in with an effervescence that I had never seen her posses behind the white walls of our former den.

  For a time, we settled into the new den called _Railroad_ , and Mercy and I continued to run missions as per our programming - the difference was that we didn’t find rogue synth and humans to take back to our den for testing and reprimand. We found them to _save_ them… and somewhere in my mind, my instincts told me that this was _right_ , and that I had been created to protect others all along. I settled into the name Triage, but I never forgot that I was unit designation Y2-09, and we had gone against the strict commands of our leader to find this new taste of freedom.

  A full moon had not even risen before Glory brought up a procedure that was necessary in order for Mercy and I to stay safely in this world. A doctor Amari, who smelled like _sterilized metal_ would wipe our memories of the Institute, while allowing us to keep our basic instinctual programming and bond - my hackles set up at the very thought of it, but my sister trusted Glory… and Guts pressed hard through our bond that things would turn out for the best. She’d gone through the same steps to assure that her pack-sister was safe, and it was _necessary_. I didn’t like it. I didn’t understand why humans felt the need to reprogram anything in our minds… but I dutifully followed Mercy to a city that smelled of blood, alcohol, sweat… and oddly out of place was belladonna and newborn pups. Part of my mind, the part that was slowly giving over to the instincts of my animal DNA, wanted to look for those two odd scents, but we were led into a red building… and I thought that I would have time after.

  They wanted to perform the procedure on us both in tandem, but the low bubbling snarl that was my response convinced the female human that approaching me would be against her best interests. I didn’t care if it would hurt, or if it would twist my mind until it was my turn - I wouldn’t be rendered helpless while Mercy had no ability to defend herself. I was a wolfbrother, and her protector. It was bred and programmed into my very coding - I wasn’t going to shirk that instinct, regardless of the unpleasantries that I might experience. Mercy brushed strands of short hair from her forehead and leaned down to press her skull gently against my own.

   _I’ll be back before you know it, my great protector. Wait for me._

_I’ll wait. I’ll look after you, always._

The human Amari led her to a cramped pod that smelled like sweat and tears. She pressed her hand to the glass, and I raised my large paw, covering her outspread fingers. With a small smile, she closed her eyes and laid back.

   There was a whir, a smell of heating copper and metal - and then I felt something inside of me stripping away like layers of flesh to leave my nerves raw. A low whimper spilled from my throat, and my body collapsed forward - Mercy had been an ever present comfort in my mind. Her warmth, her scent, her intelligence and keen eye. She was sharp brutality and unwavering clemency all at once - and then she was nothing. I felt them peel her away from me, and though I cast my mind out far, I couldn’t find her again. There was only a steady thrum of white-noise and _nothing_ from the direction of her prone body, and that white-noise cut me to the bone.

  “Glory…” The doctor from the corner had a tone in her voice that I didn’t like. I inhaled deeply - my senses tingled and a low, snarling growl escaped my throat. I had been programmed to smell when something was lost, when there was no use in trying to save and retrieve it. My senses twitched - I jumped to the glass and let out a low, aching howl.

   Mercy wouldn’t open her eyes.

   Mercy never opened her eyes again.

 

\---

 

  I hated the scent of _sterilized metal,_ and when its owner entered the small room that Mercy laid prone in, I sprung to my feet and let out a snarl. I heard Glory’s hostility when she spoke, but I was having trouble following the conversation. The doctor wanted to take Mercy’s body to give it new life, and Glory seemed furious at the very idea. She left with the woman that smelled like _sterilized metal_ and when she came back, Glory told me that we had to go. Gut’s wouldn’t look at me, because I had never forgiven her for the lie that Mercy would be _fine,_ and that the procedure would be _safe._

It was only Glory bending eye level with me that brought my upper lip down from a protective snarl. “Triage - she wouldn’t want to stay this way. She would have wanted to help someone, and you know it. You can’t protect her anymore, because she’s not _here_. You have to let her go.”

  I snapped at her face, bringing Gut’s forward in a protective lurch - before her teeth connected with my pelt, I stepped back.

  _Fine. But I’m going, too._

  I wouldn’t let them take her from me again.

 

\---

   

  The musty basement smelled like hot metal still, but before I’d even come down the stairs, new scents hit my nose that confused me. _Copper_ and _lightning, grass_ and _mint._ An entire array of smells, laced with _cleaning astringent_ and _cold metal_ that reminded me greatly of the Institute. Layered against the _copper_ and _mint,_ I could smell _newborn puppies_ and _belladonna_ , faint and not present, but lingering around them. It was with trepidation but determination that I followed them into the basement, and as we rounded the corner, I instantly associated the scents that had been flooding me with the bodies that they belonged to.

  Two men stood tall, one was _warm copper_ and the other was _mint and copper, alcohol and flowers._ Their wolf sisters stood protective at their sides. The one that smelled like _lighting and ice_ was small in front of me, but fierce in her presence as she guarded her back. The other was _sunshine, grass, and gunpowder,_ and she stood brave at her pack-mates side, ready to move if given the order.

  Beside them whirred a robot, and her voice spilled out in soft, nervous excitement. “Oh! Another chien, ah, I mean loup! Such beautiful brown and cream fur! What an odd size you are though, _chiot,_ far larger than the other wolves I’ve met. I wonder what has caused your rapid and accelerated growth! Oh Silas, Quinn! There are so many things to learn!” Her accent was not that of the people I had met, but her voice bubbled with an excitement that I had never seen assigned to a Handy unit. From what I had grasped, _this_ was the reason why they had moved Mercy here.

  A low growl rumbled from my chest, and the white wolfbitch stepped forward. Her crystal blue eyes bored into mine, and her mind pressed down firmly against my own. _Calm._ I shook my head, startled by her pack-presence. _Trust_ and _understanding_ came on the wings of that sensation, and my growl turned into a low, anxious rumble. In front of me, the robot gave a whirr.

   “Oh, the chiot seems upset! I don’t understand, Silas? Quinn?”

   “This was G5’s brother, Curie.” The one that smelled of _mint and copper_ ’s voice was calm, and he spoke to her like you would a puppy. “He just wants to make sure that she’s safe.”

   “Ah, the pack instinct that you speak of. I understand.” The robot’s large eye turned to me, and her voice was soft as she spoke. “Do not worry, I will not hurt your sister, I promise.” My nose twitched again - there was no malice in her voice. There was no cunning, or sharpness. There was only innocence. She was like a puppy.

    _Innocent puppy_ . The white wolf pressed the thought into my mind, gently brushing against my senses to let me know that if I wished, I could step forward and feel _safe_ within her pack. Instead, I padded to the side of the machine that they’d placed Mercy in and vigilantly took my seat. I wouldn’t leave her.

  “You’re a brave brother.” It seemed that the taller of the two men needed to acknowledge what I did, how I stayed. I looked up at him with impassive eyes, though I knew they would catch the light and flash golden to reveal me as synthetic. He didn’t flinch at it, but instead stepped to the side to put one hand on the robot called Curie’s metal frame. “Are you ready?”

  “Oh, yes! I am ready to experience this spark that is humanity. I must understand this world as you do, if I am to further my medical knowledge!” I stared impassively up at her. She was a _metal puppy._

“When you’re ready then, Curie. Please, step to the side of the room.” The woman that smelled of _sterilized metal_ spoke, and then I smelled heated metal again - my body flinched in reaction and visceral memory… but something altogether different was happening. Those layers that had been peeled away were sliding back into place - they were softer now, like the fur of a newborn pup, but… I was… feeling things again in a section of my mind that had been white noise and agony. That noise was coming into sharp focus, and the skin that had been stripped away to expose my nerves was being laid carefully back into place. My mind was filled with one singular thought - one perfect, beautiful though.

    _Mercy._

 But the eyes that opened weren’t hers, and I could tell immediately. They were full of innocence and inquisitive wonder - something that Mercy had never had. The hand that was-but-was-not Mercy’s came down on pure instinct, brushing against the fur between my ears. My mind felt soft, sweet warmth… and for just a moment, I closed my eyes and _relaxed._

   “Oh… oh _my_.” Mercy-but-not-Mercy’s voice was different, so very different. It was full of the accent that the robot had held - the metal body that had spoken had fallen to the ground. She turned her head to look at me, and that innocence bared down, boring into my very bones and filling up the gouges that the white noise had left behind. “Oh, this is strange. I feel - warmth, and… confusion… and… protectiveness? Oh, what is happening?”

   Protectiveness - yes.

   She smelled like _fresh blood and dried blood_ the old Mercy and the new. But I wouldn’t call her that. I knew what she was.

    _Chiot_ , my voice spilled soft into her mind, and she jumped. _Be calm. I will protect you._ And I knew that I would. The loneliness that Mercy had left behind was filled with something else - the need to protect the little puppy that had taken the place of her body. My sister-who-wasn’t was now a puppy in my pack, and I _knew_ she wouldn’t be able to survive in the Commonwealth without a guardian.

   “Oh, Silas! Quinn! He speaks into my mind, and I can hear him! Is this what you spoke of before when you mentioned this pack-bond that you hold in such reverence?”

   The male’s eyes were wide, but I could only tear my gaze from her face for a moment. My Chiot could barely stand, actually collapsing forward when she tried. I dove instantly, letting her fall against my massive frame, my back coming up to her waist. She wrapped her arms around me, inhaling my scent and letting out a small bubble of effervescent laughter. _Mercy’s_ laughter. “Oh, this is truly wonderful!”

   In the background, I heard the doctor speaking - she wasn’t sure that it would work this way, but she had a feeling that the bond between synth body and wolf would remain. I brushed away her words, focusing on the woman whose arms were tight around me, fingers digging into my pelt. I could feel her trembling with the overwhelming sensation of pack bond.

   “We could always wipe the wolves mind, so that they start this new journe--” A snarl ripped from my throat, startling my Chiot above me. I stepped forward, pressing myself between her and the woman that smelled like _sterilized metal._ I turned to the white wolf beside me, pressing her for the offer that she’d given earlier. A pack-bond. Eagerly, her full tail giving a small wave, she pulled me into her mind - and I used that connection to convey my emotions immediately.

   The man, who she recognized as brother, as _warm copper pennies,_ and as Silas, spoke after she relayed my message. “Triage will not be wiped. He says he’ll keep his memories, and his ability to protect his newfound puppy.” The woman opened her mouth, as though to protest, and Silas gave a small smile. “I wouldn’t test him, if I were you.” I could hear in his voice a level of protectiveness that echoed with my own. His emotions swirled around me. I was part of his _pack_ , and I wouldn’t be forced into anything that I didn’t desire.

  Behind me, Curie made a small sound. I turned, nosing her gently at her throat. She let out another small laugh - so close to Mercy’s that it made my chest ache from the memory. “So cold, your nose. But so sweet. Are you going to look after me - Triage… that is your name, yes?”

   _Yes. And yes._ I nosed her closer, helping her to stand, though she kept her hand on my back. _I’ll look after you, always._ They were the last words that I had spoken to Mercy, and my first promise to my new sister - no, my new puppy. I would protect her with my life, and this time… I would let nothing take her away.

  
  



End file.
